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331,000 new hospitality jobs created since 2010

The extent of the hospitality industry’s contribution to UK employment has been revealed in new figures.

In total, hospitality and tourism employs 4.49 million people, which means one in ten adults work in the sectors, while 331,000 catering and hospitality jobs were created between 2010 and 2015, or 17 per cent of all new jobs in the period. When travel and tourism jobs are included, the figure rises to one in five of all new positions created in the past five years.

For every ten new hospitality jobs, another six are created in the wider economy, while the industry is set to deliver 60,000 apprenticeships, work experiences and career opportunities for young people in Britain by the end of 2016.

The report from Oxford Economics and commissioned by the British Hospitality Association also found that 34 per cent of the workforce are under 25 years of age, while nearly 14 per cent (or 475,000) of people aged between 16 and 24 in the UK are unemployed.

Looking more widely at the economy, the study found that the industry delivers £143 billion per year, which is ten per cent of the gross value added to GDP.

The figures were released to coincide with an event in Parliament earlier this week aimed at encouraging the government to reform policy in order to make the industry more competitive, such as cutting hospitality’s rate of VAT from 20 per cent to five per cent.

Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association, said: “Hospitality is a wealth generator across the country, not just London and the South East, and we can contribute a lot more to this country in new well-paid jobs, exports and increased tax revenue.

“But we need government support to fully unleash our industry’s potential; on tourism VAT, on visas, deregulation, aviation capacity and on creating a fair digital marketplace by banning so-called ‘rate-parity’ agreements.”